


Baby Horse

by Friendlylycanthrope



Series: Let's Talk About It [26]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Catra Redemption, F/F, If not go reread SwinftWind's Friend, a baby horse that is, is it an oc if its just a horse??? discuss, non graphic depiction of birth, the episode where they help deliver a baby, yall remember Duchess? The horse?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:35:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24779239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Friendlylycanthrope/pseuds/Friendlylycanthrope
Summary: Swift made a horse friend, a runaway farm horse who is pregnant, Duchess. Adora is over the moons at this. But now the baby horse is coming! And Swift Wind is freaking out! Which means Adora is freaking out! The three gals help deliver a baby horse.
Relationships: Adora/Catra/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Series: Let's Talk About It [26]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1714624
Comments: 7
Kudos: 60





	Baby Horse

  
  
  


Their lives were hectic all day every day for weeks after the Immigration. Constant worries, meetings, files, operations, and feedback left the three with little time for each other. So when they did have that time, lying in almost sleep together, it was a cherished and welcome warmth. 

It was late evening, and Adora was nearly asleep with Catra when Glimmer returned. Adora partially registered her arrival in her sleepy mind, while Glimmer and Catra touched base on the day. 

“How are the negotiations going?” Catra asked. She was nearby Adora, with her head and shoulders up on the headboard while the taller of the two napped beside her. Catra could feel the comfort and warmth coming from her, from their relationship, and allowed herself to feel safe and happy when she was this close to two people who loved her. 

“The inner provinces are fighting. As usual.” Glimmer grumbled as she sat beside the pair. She smiled at the two of them, Catra petting Adora’s hair slowly to lull her to sleep, and if it had been a few weeks ago, Catra would have felt a strange shame and rushed to cover it up. But now, she was comfortable here with them.

“And how is it at Safety?” Glimmer asked, laying on the opposite side of Catra so she was between the two princesses. Catra hummed softly. 

“Scorpia is handling things great. No word on the families of abandoned kids though. That seems to work out fine, everyone down there is taking care of each other. They’re really pulling off the community living thing well.”

“Sounds like things have finally settled down then.” Glimmer agreed. For several days, it had been pure chaos to get them all set up. But with each day that went by, the problems popped up less frequently as they settled into their new lives. 

They continued to chat comfortably, until their eyes drifted shut slowly. The darkening night sky out was only getting darker and it was affecting them. Just as they were about to start sleeping, Adora suddenly bolted upright with a gasp, that startled the other two with yells of surprise. A hand flew to her head while Catra and Glimmer caught their breath. 

“Adora, what the heck!” Catra yelled, suddenly awake. “I thought you were asleep!” Adora was suddenly getting out of bed and hurriedly putting on her boots. 

“It’s Swifty, I think he’s in trouble!” She explained. “He’s calling out to me, he’s panicked!”

“What?” Glimmer asked, now also getting up. “Isn’t he here at Bright Moon? What could be wrong, is he hurt?”

“I don’t know, I need to go check,” Adora rushed around the room to find her jacket, then head for the door. 

“Adora wait, there could be trouble,” Glimmer said, stopping her. “We’re coming too.” Adora looked to Catra for confirmation, but she rolled her eyes. 

“Ugh fine. But this had better be important.” Then, later grumbling low enough that she thought only she could hear, “The things I do for my wife...”

“Catra, we aren’t married.” Glimmer reminded her with a coy smile.

Their first stop was the stables, where Swift Wind lived on his own for most of the time since he had freed the other horses. But lately, he shared it with a friend, Duchess, an escaped work horse who needed a safe place to foal. Adora had been visiting them regularly and trying to get Duchess to like her by offering sugar cubes, and lately the mare could be seen grazing in the pasture while Swift Wind protectively watched her from nearby. She was even becoming fond of Adora and other people lately. 

They pushed into the barn door, Adora first with the sword ready to fight if there was any trouble. 

“Swift Wind, I’m here!” She called out. “I got your message, what’s wrong?” 

But there were no horde intruders within the stalls. In fact, it seemed regular and clean, with no signs of struggle. The lamps were lit with a yellow light on all the walls, and Swift Wind soon poked his head out of the largest stall down at the end. 

“Adora, you gotta help!” He yelled as she approached, even though they were so close together. Of the many similar personality traits that they shared, anxiety was near the top that both she and her steed could relate on. He stepped out partially, blocking the stall door while the three of them prepared for whatever it was that he was suffering from. 

“Are you okay, are you hurt?” Adora quickly questioned. Swift Wind pawed his hoofs against the hay on the ground nervously. 

“No it’s not me--it’s Duchess!” He explained. Glimmer’s eyes went wide when she started to think of what the emergency might be. Catra had heard news of this Duchess, but hadn’t met yet. “I think the foal is coming--but I don’t know what I’m doing or what’s going on or how to help!” He described at last, his voice rising in panic. Adora dropped the sword in shock and grabbed Swift Wind’s muzzle. 

“Swifty! Why the  _ fuck _ would you think that I would know any better!” She yelled back at him, equally anxious. It was rare for Adora to swear, especially something of that caliber, which only proved her rising anxiety.

“Wait, you called us down here cause your horse friend is having a baby?” Catra asked. Then, to Glimmer, she asked, “Isn’t there anyone in the castle that would know more about this than us?”

“I don’t know, there’s people here to feed Swift Wind, but we haven’t had  _ this _ happen at our stables in years!” She explained. “The castle veterinarian would have handled that, but he retired when all the horses left!”

“Swifty, did you seriously fire the veterinarian?” Adora asked. Swift Wind snorted and shook his head. 

“Can we focus please!” Swift Wind snapped. A pained and tired neigh came from the stall behind him. “We need to do something!”

“Okay fine, let us in and we’ll see if we can help!” Adora said with determination. Glimmer didn’t say anything, feeling like she somehow owed it to them to help out, and Catra groaned at the coming task they were about to face. Swift Wind backed up out of the doorway and the trio entered. 

Inside, they found Duchess, the large fluffy workhorse with a dark coat, pacing the area in what could only be panic. The stall was roughly twelve feet by twelve feet, giving her plenty of space to move around. They could see large spots of blood staining the hay and sawdust that covered the ground. When she saw the three new people, she neighed wildly at them and backed up, threatening to push herself onto her hind legs to swing her hooves at them. 

“Woah, woah!” Adora put her hands up to show she meant no harm. “Easy girl, we’re here to help!” Duchess hardly calmed down, but Adora kept trying to show that she wasn’t going to hurt her or her foal. 

“Wait, I’m confused.” Catra whispered to Glimmer. “Can Adora make any horse have the ability to talk? Or can she like, talk to all horses now ever since she learned Swift Wind?"

“What? No.” Glimmer whispered back. They were both giving the mare a wide girth given her defensive anxieties towards people. Adora continued in a quiet voice to calm down Duchess, and was making progress as she stilled more. 

“Come here girl, just calm down, that’s it. See? Okay easy there... Is it okay if I come check you? It’s okay, easy,”

“Wait, maybe? Holy shit, can she talk to animals?” Glimmer said in disbelief as she watched Adora tame the wild animal. Duchess stayed in place in the corner, her hooves nervously clopping up and down several times even as Adora approached her. 

“Glimmer, can you teleport and get some things?” Adora asked over her shoulder, maintaining the eye contact she held with Duchess as she hesitantly reached out for her muzzle. 

“Oh uh, what should I get?”

“Lots of sugar cubes, and a bucket of water.” Adora explained. She now happily rubbed one hand up and down the long face of the horse. “Just to help her relax. I don’t know anything about what to do once she’s calmer though.” Glimmer disappeared in a flash. 

“Yo, horse,” Catra asked Swift Wind. “You must have come from somewhere. There were other horses there, right? Didn’t you pick up anything on this stuff?”

“No, not really.” Swift Wind admitted in defeat, his head hanging low. “I was too busy grazing and there wasn’t a lot of us in Thaymore.” 

Glimmer reappeared with the supplies and cautiously approached Adora with the metal pail of water and a bag of sugar cubes she had stolen from the tea room. They allowed Duchess to dip her head down to drink and she inhaled the water quickly after eating a handful of sugar cubes. With the horse officially placated and calmed down, Adora patted her down to check her over, trying to encourage her. She had no idea what to do next. 

“Okay, uh,” She said. “I have no idea how this works.” She said when she approached the rear of the mare, seeing it was bloody. She winced and pulled away, wondering if there was a wound that was causing her pain. 

She looked desperately to Glimmer and Catra for help. Glimmer shrugged and Catra finally approached and reached out to pet Duchess’s mane. Then she bucked her head up all of a sudden and let out a pained sound as her knees trembled beneath her and all three backed away cautiously. 

“AAAAA, what’s happening!” Adora yelled in panic. “What do we do!”

“It’s probably a contraction!” Catra said. The pained sound stopped and died out to a whimper in Duchess’s throat as she leaned against the wall more for support. Glimmer and Adora looked at Catra incredulously, mouths open in shock. 

“Wait, Catra, how do you know about this stuff?” Adora asked. “They didn’t teach us this in the horde!”

“When I was with Razz, she had to help deliver a baby deer,” Catra explained. “It was in the top ten worst days of my life, but she insisted I help so she explained what was happening!” Catra declared, crossing her arms. 

“Wait, so you actually know what’s going on?” Glimmer asked. “Why didn’t you say something!”

“Did I mention the top ten worst days? That shit was disgusting. Besides, a horse is very different from a deer! Also it was forever ago, I hardly remember much!”

“Doesn’t matter, it’ll have to do!” Adora said. She grabbed Catra’s wrist and dragged her over to the mare. “Tell us what to do!”

“Ugh! The things I do for my wife.” She grumbled. “Okay, she has to lie down on her side. And we’re going to need a lot more water.”

“Catra, we aren’t married!”

  
  


***

  
  


The work was, as Catra had predicted, messy and disgusting. They were up all night trying to help Duchess and Swift Wind and Adora kept yelling in panic which didn’t help. Swifty had stayed up by Duchess’s face to soothe her while the other three had to quickly figure out what to do. Catra, truthfully, did not retain much of what Razz had taught her about the process so they were mostly flying blind. But Adora was desperate to help her friend, so the other two did what they could. 

What Catra described as the worst part was when the foal was being born. And, as she recalled, horrifying and disgusting. Glimmer couldn’t look and even Adora felt sick. But they did it, and they did it together. In the final moments, all three of them were just yelling in shock and fear together like a three part harmony. Then everything just slid out before them and it was over. 

“Holy shit.” Glimmer whispered. They all sat on their butts, three in a row, as they watched the baby horse squirm in response to it’s mother’s touch as she started to sniff and lick her baby. Beneath the layer of afterbirth, it had a caramel-tan coat. 

“Holy shit.” Catra sighed, leaning back on her hands. 

“Holy  _ shit _ .” Adora finally agreed. Swift wind came up and also sniffed the foal.

“Aw, you guys! It’s a boy!” He announced with a smile. 

“Wow.” Adora said. “I think that I might look at horses differently after this.”

“What did you think?” Catra teased, poking her in the ribs. “Don’t you know that that’s how all animals have to do it?”

“I think that Razz would be proud of you, Catra.” Glimmer said. The foal lifted his head and blinked open his eyes. Duchess continued to lick him clean and get the gross debris out of his long eyelashes. “We did it!”

“I sincerely hope I never have to do that again.” Catra said. But she smiled slightly when she saw the foal look around and blink. 

“Do you guys wanna name him?” Swift Wind asked. 

“Really?” The darkness of the horrors she had seen were gone from Adora’s face as her eyes lit up. Catra and Glimmer fell in love with her all over again seeing how she bolted up in excitement. “Is that okay with Duchess?” The other two stood up as well, dusting themselves off from the filth of the barn floor. 

“I’m sure she won’t mind. You helped her and gave her a place to stay after all.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t get to name Catra.” Glimmer joked. 

“Wow, this is the thanks I get?” Catra said sarcastically. “What would you call me, some flashy princess name?” She waved her hands in the air to exaggerate the sparkliness of Bright Moon. 

“Nah, I’m between the names Dipshit and Fuzzy.” Glimmer wrapped her arms around Catra. 

“Wow, my own wife calling me dipshit.” Catra said sarcastically. “So romantic!” Her latest joke between the three of them was to casually call Adora but especially Glimmer her wife, mainly to annoy her in an affectionate way.

“Catra, we aren’t married.” Glimmer replied as she always did. 

“I gotta admit, the names in the Fright Zone were waaay more normal sounding.” Adora laughed. “We should probably just do something simple. Like Adam or something.”

“Oh come on Adora, I know you can do better than that.” Catra said. “That’s almost as dumb as Adora.”

“Oh, we could call him horse-ra,” Glimmer suggested. “Like Cat-ra and Adore-ra!”

“Please don’t name him horse-ra.” Swift Wind said. They all watched as the nameless colt tried to stand up on wobbly, twig like legs. He kept slipping and losing his balance and stumbling around while his mother watched him closely. 

“Okay, how about this.” Adora said. “His mom is Duchess, right? So he should have a name like that too. Like Duke or maybe Prince.”

“I like that.” Glimmer said, wrapping one arm around Adora. 

“I think Duke sounds cool.” Catra agreed. “Cause it's also a word for fighting!” Glimmer rolled her eyes. 

“Cool, Duke it is.” Adora said. “Now let's go wash up and also bleach our eyes from the graphic horrors of the miracle of life.”

“Yeah, I’m not sleeping tonight. That was extremely weird.” Glimmer said. 

“Disgusting.” Catra agreed. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Please leave comments, love hearin from all'a'y'all. More to come.


End file.
